WIFI fun

Ever since moving back to Oslo, I have had some challenges with my network access from my office. Due to walls thick as an average american (excuse me if I offend you), made out of steel enforced stone and concrete, I decided that I would use two Wifi APs and just bridge them. I have Wifi just out in the hallway, and the reception has been fine with my laptop.

Since I moved my workstation here some time ago, I have had some real challenges with accessing any segments of the net outside of my small office segment (laptop, workstation, testbench, printer). I knew that the wifi connection where to blame. And I knew I had to fix it myself. And as you know, I fix my own stuff only after I have fixed all the other stuff (I believe I am not alone in this...).

I dreaded to have to drill holes in the walls, and stretch cables (from a security point of view, I probably should), and being lazy, I just postponed it.

Until today. I just had enough of Skype dropping every other minute, downloading being impossible, and worse - not being able to use my workstation to upload changes and administer the all the secret stuff that I mess up around the mesh. (No, I will not tell you where and what, since I do not want you to know that it is me that creates the mess!!)

Since I am still lazy, I decided that I would not take the elevator down to the server room and fetch cable, connectors, drill and the rest of the bits and pieces required to mount a cable. Instead, I went out in the sunshine, and just bought myself a new AP, reasoning that the Linksys ethernet bridge that I bought back in 2005 (possibly earlier too), had finally decided to die on me, and that it was just a matter of switching it with a different box. I picked up a Jensen AP with switch included, and where able to clean my office while ditching two devices, bundles of cable and two PSUs.

The Jensen thingie is a cheap box, and after some initial fidling with the setting, connected straight to the AP in the hallway. So far, it seems to be stable, and give me a link to the net that is not going to bug me too much. I hope!